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Missing Types: Overcoming the Typology Dilemma of Lithic Archaeology in Southeast Asia

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MISSING TYPES: OVERCOMING THE TYPOLOGY DILEMMA OF LITHIC ARCHAEOLOGY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. Miriam Noël Haidle1 and Alfred F. Pawlik2 1University of Tübingen, Germany 2Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City Emails: [email protected]; [email protected] In Europe as well as in the Americas, typology of at least Susan Bulmer (Auckland, New Zealand) mooted artefacts some key forms was and still is the basis of relative from New Guinea which have long been ignored. Stone chronology. For Southeast Asian prehistory, attempts to tool assemblages from five excavations in the Central classify lithic assemblages morphologically and Highlands of Papua New Guinea were restudied: four technologically in order to fit them into established stone rockshelters in and near the Wahgi Valley, and one open- tool typologies from other parts of the world have not air site, a natural swamp that was first cultivated at around proved to be very useful. Up to now, the formation of a 10,000 BP. Bulmer focused mainly on Pleistocene axes specific regional typology system has failed. Session 1C and axe-like tools and compared the evidence of the of the 18th Congress of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Highlands with two other Pleistocene sites, Bobongara Association at Manila (Fig. 1) wanted to explore the and Kosipe, the former found on the former coastline and “missing types”-problem and adjacent questions. Is the the latter found high on the edge of the upper mountain typological approach not appropriate to the special forest. The types defined are based on empirical attributes characteristics and circumstances of lithic industries in such as size, shape, the position and nature of their Southeast Asia? Why do we know of only a few formal working edges, and the wear they exhibit. A provisional “Asian” types and how did the availability and acquisition chronology of the stone tools has been suggested. of raw material influence lithic technology? Are morphological features of lithic artefacts significant enough at all to establish an acceptable chronology system of lithic periods? How can morphological features of lithic artefacts be linked to geostratigraphy in Southeast Asia? Can non-stratified surface finds contribute to Palaeolithic and Neolithic chronologies in that region? And if we dismiss the typological approach, what are the alternatives? Mirroring the state of discussion in lithic analysis in Southeast Asian archaeology, the contributions of the session covered a broad range of subjects. With his talk titled “River basin archaeology” Israel B. Cabanilla (University of the Philippines) reviewed aspects of early Philippine prehistory and site formation. Palaeolithic sites in the Philippines seemingly date back to 400-500,000 years. While most of the investigated Palaeolithic sites are situated in Northern Luzon and on Palawan Island, Fig. 1: Contributors and participants in Session 1 C “Missing Cabanilla focused in his talk on the river basins of the Types” at the 18th IPPA Conference in Manila: Sue Bulmer, Manila area. In his examination of the vast collection of Helen Selimiotis, Claire Gaillard, Eusebio Dizon, Miriam H. Otley Beyer (1947), a pioneer in Philippine Haidle, Johan Kamminga, Tessa Boer-Mah, Elise Patol- archaeology, and of various surveys of the National Edoumba, Ben Marwick, Nishimura Masanari, Jean-Michel Chazine, Israel Cabanilla, Alfred Pawlik (not in the photo: Museum conducted since the 1960s by Robert Fox and Sharon Teodosio) others, Cabanilla revealed that a major share of lithic artefacts originate from the Manila region and are South East Asian core tool industries were in the associated with the tributaries of Manila Bay and Laguna centre of the paper of Sharon F. Teodosio (University of de Bay like Marilao, Pasig and Santa Mesa. the Philippines). Twenty-one open-air localities in In her presentation on “Pleistocene stone tools of New Northern Luzon along the Cagayan River valley Guinea: a new analysis from the Far East of the Far East”, (Ronquillo 1982) formed the basis for her study IPPA BULLETIN 29, 2009: 2-5 BULLETIN OF THE INDO-PACIFIC PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION 29, 2009 “Reassessment of the Cabalwanian industry”, which has horsehoofs, side- and end-choppers and a new type called been thought to be of Palaeolithic age because of the ‘flat-iron’. Classically, these tools were interpreted as part crude appearance of some of the tools and their of a hunter-gatherer toolkit, yet the re-examination has association with a Middle-Pleistocene megafauna. This indicated that the site was primarily a pebble adze so-called Cabalwanian industry (Koenigswald 1958) workshop on the river terrace where the availability of consists mainly of flakes and a few large core tools made waterworn stones made the location ideal as a raw of chert and andesite cobbles. Within the category of material source. Kamminga saw no evidence that the heavy-duty core tools, Fox (1978) identified six different adzes were made by hunter-gatherers and instead tool types, which Teodosio, however, has found hard to discussed an association with early horticulturalists since assess. On the basis of the material from the recently the tool type is functionally equivalent to the general discovered open-air site of Arubo in Central Luzon, category of East Asian and Pacific ground stone adzes which includes a proto-handaxe and quite sophisticated that succeeded them. core technology, she has argued for a technological and Three papers of the session dealt with seemingly functional approach to be much more promising than a conservative lithic technology from late hunter-gatherer to typological-chronological one, for which – up to now – early Neolithic groups. In his talk about “Recent adequate sites with well observed context are lacking. discoveries and results from Kalimantan Timur, With the diachronic approach of his talk on “Lithic Indonesian Borneo (2003- 2005)”. Jean-Michel Chazine assemblage problems in the Palaeolithic and (Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie) Epipalaeolithic Age of Northern Vietnam and Guangxi- presented a series of cave sites in three different altitudes Guangdong” Nishimura Masanari (Center for Vietnamese of the Marang conical karst in East Kalimantan. The and Inter-cultural Studies, Ha Noi National University) group at the lowest altitude level revealed occupation sites linked two chronological foci in his contribution to this with stratigraphies from at least the end of the Pleistocene session. He reviewed the development of lithic industries through the Holocene. The stone tool workshops studied in North Vietnam from Lower Pleistocene to End- by Julien Espagne exhibited a Pleistocene knapping Pleistocene and compared the Lower Palaeolithic Son- technology throughout the Epipalaeolithic until the early Vian assemblages from Lang Vac to the Bose industry Neolithic sequences with a classical flake technology and from South China. Stratified sites with flake and core tool the typical Kutai flakes. On large flakes the bulbar region industries characterized by a considerable amount of was transversely detached with a secondary blow. The Hoabinhian tools were also emphasized. resulting Kutai flakes were then used either as blanks for An approach to the characterization of Hoabinhian tools or as micro-cores as a basis for a tertiary debitage assemblages themselves was given by Ben Marwick stage. (Australian National University) in his talk “Beyond Helen Selimiotis (Archaeology and Anthropology, typologies: The reduction thesis and its implications for Australian National University) studied the “Core lithic assemblages in Southeast Asia” (Marwick 2008). technology at Bui Ceri Uato, East Timor”, a site with a Two different analytical systems have to be distinguished: cultural sequence beginning from more than 26,000 years a) essentialism, looking for discrete categories (typology), BP. This period covers the replacement of endemic fauna and b) nominalism, stating that there are no discrete types (primarily murids) in aceramic lower deposits with exotic but only tendencies which can be abstracted (e.g. fauna (such as pig, dog, Capra/Ovis, Bos, Macaca) technological reduction approach). The reduction thesis is seemingly associated with pottery in upper levels. The based on the assumption that artefacts are continuously faunal change has been interpreted as a transition from a reworked during their life cycles and that consequently hunter-gatherer subsistence economy to animal observed shape variation is only a variation in the husbandry, presumably some sort of agricultural reduction pattern. Taking Hoabinhian assemblages as an practices, and the establishment of village communities. example, Marwick showed how reduction can be At Bui Ceri Uato, Selimiotis examined the apparent measured and how the differential distribution of continuity in East Timor lithic traditions described by Ian reduction stages can be used for behavioural modelling Glover (1986). She applied a technological analysis that and the measurement of change differences. focuses on the extent/length of core reduction and thermal The chronological and subsistence attribution of fractures of cores as an indicator of fire/hearth use. Along Hoabinhian complexes was discussed by Johan with sedimentation rates and discard rates of flaked stone Kamminga (National Heritage Consultants, Canberra). He artefacts, these factors have been used to describe the presented a reassessment of the “Hoabinhian stone intensity
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